That PC vs Mac dichotomy really doesn’t carry into pre-built PCs and definitely not into pre-built laptops and other portables. Both have a responsibility for quality control.

I agree in principle, but there is still a difference here.

Dell sells way more PCs (in much more varied configurations) than Apple does. They're generally more repairable, and they're generally cheaper. They're also willing to let you max out specs and build weird configurations; configurations that arguably don't always make much sense. That range means they also sell a few objectively cruddy laptops, so you need to be careful and read reviews and do comparisons before you buy.

Apple positions itself as different from those companies. The comparison I'm making above isn't something that only self-building PC nerds understand; the same explanation is what I give to regular consumers who are trying to decide whether to go with Windows or Mac - people who will never try to build their own stuff.

"Should I buy a Windows PC or a Mac?"

"Do you want to spend a lot of time researching brands, reading reviews, and thinking about hardware specs?"

I think the point still stands that Apple is positioning itself in a different category than companies like Dell. If not, I'm gonna have some complaints about that $3K price tag.

The closest comparison is something like the Microsoft Surface - an expensive, premium device, with low repairability and configuration options, but (theoretically) increased reliability with a streamlined experience that "just works" out of the box. When the Surface line has problems, I put more blame on Microsoft than I would put on a company like Dell in an equivalent situation.

There is no correlation between how repairable a laptop is and its failure rate.

You've just made this up and now are criticising Apple/Microsoft for it.

There is a correlation between how repairable a laptop is and whether it uses a custom build process, single-body design, or if you're directly soldering chips onto a motherboard - all of which can help with reliability. Fewer moving parts and less build complexity means fewer places where things can go wrong.

I wasn't criticizing Apple or Microsoft for anything when I said their laptops weren't repairable, I was giving them the benefit of the doubt that some of their engineering decisions around repairability are made for good reasons.

I don't think that's a particularly controversial idea. I mean, no one is seriously going to argue that they are repairable. So assuming there's a good reason for that, this is the standard explanation that I and other people would give to someone complaining about repairability - that Apple optimizes for other things.

Heck, it's the explanation that Apple gives: "Our devices are more reliable when we're the only people messing with their internals."